July 6th CURE NEWS
Mark David
July 6th
1) Florida’s school choice program offers universal vouchers but cannot show systemwide academic improvement by Kendall Deas Assistant Professor of Education Policy, Law, and Politics, University of South Carolina for THE CONSERVATION Published: July 6, 2026 8:07am EDT
The Florida Department of Education cannot account for US$270 million it has spent through its school choice program. That’s according to a November 2025 state audit of the department.
The same audit shows the department also doesn’t know which schools – if any – more than 30,000 K-12 students in the state attend.
During the 2026 legislative session, which ended March 13, 2026, state Sen. Don Gaetz, a Republican and an advocate for school choice, introduced legislation that would have tightened the reins on how Florida’s Family Empowerment Scholarship program distributes funds. The program allows any family in Florida, regardless of income, to use state funding to pay for private or parochial school for its K-12 children – or even to homeschool them.
The Florida House voted down Gaetz’s proposed reforms, and so the problems found in the audit remain unaddressed for now.
Florida hasn’t always taken such a laissez-faire approach to its school choice program. The state has been in the school choice game since 1999, and its program has evolved significantly since then.
Today, Florida operates one of the most expansive school choice systems in the U.S. I’m a researcher in education, public policy and law, and I’ve been investigating the evolution and educational results of Florida’s school choice program.
2) Why only 13% of surplus food gets donated by US supermarkets and other retailers to help hungry people – and how food pantries are trying to gather more BY John Lowrey
Assistant Professor of Supply Chain and Health Sciences, Northeastern University Published: July 6, 2026 8:10am EDT for the THE CONVERSATION
3) How the Left's 'Earn My Vote' Fallacy Handed MAGA Generational Victories
When leverage is real, when it disappears, and why confusing the two helped hand the country to Trump twice. BY Kristoffer Ealy for LINCOLN SQUARE
Politics has phases, and different phases require different strategies. Primaries are negotiations. That is the leverage window. General elections are outcome management. Governing is coalition pressure, bargaining, maintenance, and trying to extract policy wins from the people you helped put into office. Then the cycle starts over again. The problem is that too many voters treat all three phases like they are interchangeable when they are not. They keep trying to negotiate after the dealership already handed somebody else the keys and drove the car off the lot. The problem is not wanting leverage. The problem is misunderstanding when leverage is real and when the negotiating window has already closed.
4) Vance's hot summer positions him as Trump's heir — for now by Marc Caputo AXIOS
This is JD Vance's summer: The vice president penned a bestselling book, helped broker a tentative peace deal with Iran, embarked on a media blitz and — most importantly for him — impressed the man in the Oval Office.
Why it matters: Vance's performances on TV, in polls and on the global chessboard underscore how — at least at this moment — the VP looks like President Trump's undisputed political heir if he runs in 2028.
- "JD is earning it, and Trump sees it," a senior Trump adviser said, adding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio — the other top Trump aide seen as a potential heir — "wasn't planning to run anyway, and he'd be even less likely to do so now."
5) Former CDC chief medical officer says RFK Jr. caused ‘irreparable harm’
by Max Rego - 07/05/26 6:05 PM ET for THE HILL
Dr. Debra Houry, the former chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), decried the direction of the agency under Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“I think the secretary has caused a lot of irreparable harm, and when you look at many of the polls out there, the trust in public health, specifically CDC, has decreased dramatically, over 20 points in many polls,” Houry told host Margaret Brennan in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5954352-cdc-robert-f-kennedy-debra-houry-hhs/
6) Wall Street wants to trade AI compute like oil by Madison Mills for AXIOS
Ornn, an Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup, raised a $33 million seed round to build a marketplace for trading the computing power that underpins today's AI boom, similar to what exists for oil traders.
Why it matters: Investors increasingly want to trade compute like a commodity, betting it could make the historically expensive AI buildout more sustainable and efficient.
Catch up quick: Commodity markets let companies use futures contracts to lock in prices for volatile raw materials.
- Think airlines locking in jet fuel prices or manufacturers hedging metals prices, which helps them reduce the risk of price fluctuations.
- But AI companies don't have an equivalent market for compute, a problem the 20-something founders of Ornn and a growing number of exchanges are trying to solve.
- So far, AI companies have tried to lock up supply and prices through long-term pre-purchasing agreements.
7) Democratic socialists give new life to Medicare for All by Maya Goldman for AXIOS
Democratic socialist and progressives' success in this year's primaries is evidence of new enthusiasm for Medicare for All plans that many centrists have long dismissed as costly pipe dreams.
Why it matters: The health affordability crisis and widespread frustration with the medical system are fueling a new appetite for big-government solutions to address drug prices, insurance premiums and long-term care costs.
https://www.axios.com/2026/07/06/democratic-socialists-medicare-for-all?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosvitals&stream=top
8) Trump’s self-dealing dwarfs the GOP’s Biden accusations by Luke Russert MS NOW
Republicans’ wildest claims about the Bidens pale in comparison to the president’s personal enrichment from the White House.
One of Donald Trump’s favorite selling points about his planned $600 million ballroom is its windows. According to the president, they’ll be “impenetrable,” with 5-inch-thick laminated glass.
That’s impressive, but nowhere near as fortified as the glass house Trump has built when it comes to corruption — a glass house that Republicans in Congress seem determined to let stand.
9) Trump Says His Funeral Will Draw Much Bigger Crowd Than Ayatollah’s
BY Andy Borowitz for THE BOROWITZ REPORT
10) How Kalshi infects the news Judd Legum and Aaron Rupar for POPULAR INFORMATION Jul 06,
In December 2025, CNN and CNBC struck landmark deals with Kalshi, a leading prediction market. Since then, both networks have promoted Kalshi to viewers extensively, frequently vouching for its accuracy. The existence of a financial relationship between the networks and Kalshi, however, is disclosed to viewers inconsistently.
Since December CNBC has published 58 articles that do little more than advertise the existence of a Kalshi market related to a news event. The headlines include “Traders predict Michael Jackson hits top Spotify after biopic,” “Kalshi traders don’t see Hormuz traffic normal until July,” and “Traders say Karen Bass and Spencer Pratt will advance to runoff in high-profile LA mayoral race.” (Pratt did not advance.)
11) Why Is He Using the Communist Trump Card? By ROBERT REICH July 6th
He's run out of other cards.
Trump has run out of cards to play in the midterm elections, which is why he’s now talking about the “communist menace.”
He can’t talk about the economy, because prices continue to rise faster than wages, which means most Americans are getting poorer. He can’t talk about foreign policy, because his war in Iran has been a debacle, his tariffs are an utter failure, and he obviously hasn’t settled the war in Ukraine on “Day 1.” He can’t talk about immigration, because his raids and mass deportations have become so unpopular.
So, facing the midterm elections, what’s left?
12) July 5, 2026 LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN BY Heather Cox Richardson Jul 06, 2026
Going into the weekend during which Americans celebrated the 250th anniversary of the day on which the Second Continental Congress accepted the Declaration of Independence, President Donald J. Trump was facing a whole lot of bad news.
There was the war on Iran. On Thursday, after U.S. Central Command said regional leaders in the Middle East were committed to the “free flow of commerce” in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s military command said that any ships trying to cross the strait on unapproved routes would be met with a “forceful response.” The U.S. has been urging ships to use a route close to Oman, but Iran’s warning caused ships to turn around.
13) America’s Immigration Waves: 250 Years of Arrivals. BY Billal Rahman NEWSWEEK
Jul 01, 2026 at 05:00 AM EDT
The American story is, in many ways, an immigration story, not a single, linear journey but a succession of arrivals that have repeatedly reshaped the country and how it understands itself.
From the first European settlers and enslaved Africans who arrived in the 17th century to today’s highly globalized flows of workers, students and asylum seekers, immigration has been less an episode in American history than one of its defining structures. Each wave has carried its own geography, its own politics and its own idea of what America should become next.
14) While Patriotic Americans Celebrated This Weekend, An Old Ugliness Reared Its Head
Freedom loving Americans have beaten it every time before. Now it's our turn.
BY Adam Kinzinger Jul 06, 2026
I was furious to see the 4th of July desecrated by cowards in masks. These men oppose the very things that make America worth fighting for and I will never let them win. Join the fight with me as I continue to push back against the cowards who won’t even show their faces and the coward in the White House who is trying to resurrect the red scare. Becoming a paid subscriber is the best way to support me in this fight!
https://www.adamkinzinger.com/p/while-patriotic-americans-celebrated?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1910658&post_id=205501994&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=5jaee&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email